Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon: The Baking of a Cannabis Advocate

One of Canada’s most iconic names in pot activism dishes on her early days in the nation’s spotlight and the ingredients to success in culinary infusion.

Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon says it never occurred to her that, at 20 years old, a batch of pot cookies would be the first step to becoming a national canna-celeb.

“I started smoking because it was a fabulously good time,” she says to the Straight in a phone interview, never thinking her childhood love of baking would skyrocket her cannabis-use into activism infamy.

After pursuing comedy in New York in the early 90s, Watermelon returned to Vancouver, broke and in search of a fun way to make money.